It's not about hurting feelings, it's about doing what you're paid for.

Best example: linebacker stops a running back for a 2-yeard gain on 3rd and 5. He gets up pounding his chest and making hand gestures proclaiming his superiority. Dude, YOU GET PAID TO DO THAT, AND MORE THAN THAT, YOU SHOULDN'T LET HIM GET ANY YARDS.

My dad is 60 years old and works outside as a tree surgeon every day in the blistering heat and in the dead of winter. Should he do a dance every time he puts a log into the wood chipper when it's 102 degrees outside?
- jmatchett383

Has your dad ever killed a bird for some random reason?

How could you watch basketball when GOT was "Battle of the Bastards"? The most satisfying episode of that series yet!!!!
- sammy87

somewhat disappointed it was so predictable. Basically all the previews said exactly what would happen....outside of how Ramsey would use Rickon to tilt the battle in his favor. I guess part of me wanted to see a more even battle than the crushing of Jons army and the Knights of the Vale ride in to save the day.

My bad. I broke the 24 hour rule.
- Iggysbff

Eh, you're still better than the guy on the Flyers board who broke the Hans Solo part of the new Star Wars film.

Has your dad ever killed a bird for some random reason?
- rmiethaner

It was not random.

Hey RW,

Why no mention about the US Open and how the USGA "Gets It"?

(but in all seriousness, on a scale from conformity to blatant individualism/star treatment:

Golf (did you see Dustin Johnson?) -----> NHL -----------------> NBA

I think a major factor that plays into the much larger success of leagues such as NBA, and even NFL, compared to the NHL is the large interest in collegiate sports and finding those to-be-Allstars early in NCAA events. Basketball has March Madness, Football has the Bowls, both of which are much, much more marketed compared to the frozen four. ESPN is much more likely to cover a rising college basketball star compared to a McDavid or Matthews; despite both players having arguably a larger impact on their franchise compared to any NBA or NFL drafted player. And maybe this is also due to the fact that a lot of NHL draft eligible players don't hail from the NCAA like other sports. But, i think the early exposure of a basketball or football player in his, or hers, NCAA days allows us fans to follow their story and really get behind them before even their professional success starts. I have plenty of friends who hate sports and who hate the NBA, but they all tuned in for this series and last nights game because we all grew up with the potential superstar (now proven) Lebron James' story entering the NBA.

somewhat disappointed it was so predictable. Basically all the previews said exactly what would happen....outside of how Ramsey would use Rickon to tilt the battle in his favor. I guess part of me wanted to see a more even battle than the crushing of Jons army and the Knights of the Vale ride in to save the day.
- sditulli

You can tell this season is not Martins work and more of HBO's. This season has been a disappointment IMO. The Arya episodes were a drag and things are just moving so slow. You know the Vale would ride into the rescue, anyone saw that coming.

Oh without a doubt. Star treatment rules the major US sports. Nobody wants to see a Lebron-less, Curry-less finals. The NBA is marketed so much more as an individual sport because stars are so much more vocal in team-building and FA. Lebron pretty much handpicked his squad

It was funny in game 6, both Curry and Love had 3 fouls by halftime and then again in gm7 last night, both again had 3 fouls apiece. Interestingly, the NBA had different referees for each of 5,6,7 (where they brought game 4 refs back in game 7)
- DeflatedPucks

The thing that people don't understand is that NBA basketball is actually an individual sport. People knock NBA stars for being self centered and what not, but they have to be in order to succeed. There's such disparity between top tier talent and everyone else that if a super star doesn't have a me first mentality and take over the games, his team is going to suck. There's no real way of fixing this beyond shrinking the league so that there are less teams to spread the elite talent over and every team becomes deeper. I mean, look at Cleveland's roster. Take Lebron off that team and that roster is an 8th seed at best. The Warriors and to a lesser extent the Spurs are the only two teams that have a legit top to bottom roster where if you took one of their super stars out of the equation they'd still be very competitive.

And that, in a nut shell, is why I'm not the NBA's biggest fan. It's not so much rigged as it predictable because you know that on any given night, the team with the better set of two or three super stars has a 90% chance of winning. This NBA Finals proved to be an exception, and I think that's why I enjoyed more than usual and why I was rooting for Cleveland even though Klay Thompson is probably my favorite player in the league and I've loved Iggy every since his days as a Sixer.

You can tell this season is not Martins work and more of HBO's. This season has been a disappointment IMO. The Arya episodes were a drag and things are just moving so slow. You know the Vale would ride into the rescue, anyone saw that coming.
- sammy87

You guys really need to stop with the blatant spoilers for the people who haven't watched yet.

Anyways, I thought this season put Thrones back on the map. The last season was encroaching on bad. As a book reader, I'm thankful the show runners have kind of just taken the story as their own and moved in different directions. That way I know that when I finally get to read Winds of Winter, things aren't necessarily spoiled.

The thing that people don't understand is that NBA basketball is actually an individual sport. People knock NBA stars for being self centered and what not, but they have to be in order to succeed. There's such disparity between top tier talent and everyone else that if a super star doesn't have a me first mentality and take over the games, his team is going to suck. There's no real way of fixing this beyond shrinking the league so that there are less teams to spread the elite talent over and every team becomes deeper. I mean, look at Cleveland's roster. Take Lebron off that team and that roster is an 8th seed at best. The Warriors and to a lesser extent the Spurs are the only two teams that have a legit top to bottom roster where if you took one of their super stars out of the equation they'd still be very competitive.

And that, in a nut shell, is why I'm not the NBA's biggest fan. It's not so much rigged as it predictable because you know that on any given night, the team with the better set of two or three super stars has a 90% chance of winning. This NBA Finals proved to be an exception, and I think that's why I enjoyed more than usual and why I was rooting for Cleveland even though Klay Thompson is probably my favorite player in the league and I've loved Iggy every since his days as a Sixer.
- Victoro311

I used to think Baseball was bad in top heavy teams, but the NBA takes the cake for the most number of repeats.
8 teams have won the last 18 nba championships
and before that 10 teams have won the last 26 championships

7 times a team has been a repeat nba finalist in the last 18 seasons (and that's excluding 3-consecutive appearances)

Realistically only 3 teams in the west and 1 in the east have a chance at winning a championship/playing in the finals for next 3-4 years (Assuming Durant stays). Parity is non-existent in the nba

You guys really need to stop with the blatant spoilers for the people who haven't watched yet.

Anyways, I thought this season put Thrones back on the map. The last season was encroaching on bad. As a book reader, I'm thankful the show runners have kind of just taken the story as their own and moved in different directions. That way I know that when I finally get to read Winds of Winter, things aren't necessarily spoiled.
- Victoro311

I still think the best part of last night's episode was Yara eyef#cking the sh!t out of Daenerys.....

in all seriousness, the battle of the bastards lived up to the hype, and was probably the best GOT episode in the series.

I really don't care that hockey will never be as popular as the other sports...but I do care about the game being the best it can be.

So, I agree with part of this blog, because there are ways the league can improve the product so the game is better, but I don't give a rats ass if it stays the 4th or 10th or whatever favorite sport. As long as there is enough of a fanbase to support the product then I'm happy.

One other thing to point out...basketball ends up with about 40-50 scoring plays per side in a game. Hockey is what, right around three? While the comparison is interesting, aside from soccer, there is really no other sport where scoring is as low. Even an improved product would probably not result in more than 4 scoring plays per side on average. The nature of the game dictates that even hockey's best players are simply not going to score or be the best in every game.

The NHL would be wise to improve scoring. While it will never remotely get on the same level as the other sports, scoring is the most exciting part of hockey and I honestly believe NHL management prefers fewer scoring chances....it's the only explanation.

I don't see much of "Sportsnet" here in the 'Burgh, but their TDL coverage was excruciatingly bad.

I still think the best part of last night's episode was Yara eyef#cking the sh!t out of Daenerys.....

in all seriousness, the battle of the bastards lived up to the hype, and was probably the best GOT episode in the series.
- cap1681

The guy who directed the Bastard Bowl also directed Hardhome which was the one bright spot of last season. Whoever that guy is, is just really (frank)ing good at directing big battle episodes. He's apparently directing next week's episode too, so tickle me excited

Damn straight, every word.

- The NHL, without a doubt, will never be more than the 4th biggest sport in the US market (logistics = ice, culture = hockey doesn't have as big a sociocultural history as the other major sports)

- Some people used to say to me that the NHL isn't as popular because they don't the same outspoken, vibrant personalities as NFL, NBA BUT I DISAGREE for the same reasons you mentioned. The league cracks down on nonconformity and the "fun" element.

- The NBA, NFL seem to do a better job marketing individual player rivalries much better than the NHL


- Even in NY, I could go days without hearing/seeing something about the Rangers, but I couldn't go a day without hearing about who the Jets are planning to sign or when OTAs are. Ditto for Pittsburgh.

- Financially, the league is in better shape than before (if we turn a blind eye to franchises annually bleeding chips) but a better job has to be done to encouraging player individualism
- DeflatedPucks

Its about a culture of sports in the US. Even in the NE where the game is as popular as it is in Canada, there is still a prevailing attitude that its a white, rich kids game. My friends in Texas and Arizona find hockey fascinating but don't understand it to become "regular" fans. They grew up, their kids grew up and their parents grew up playing football and baseball. Not allot of kids from the Bronx have aspirations of becoming the next NHL superstar but someone like Lebron inspires.

Its obnoxiously expensive to play and in allot of non-hockey markets there just isn't enough rinks... the game needs to grow at a grass roots level but as its 118 in arizona today, theres not allot of hockey being played...

The NHL can market all they want, it just won't grow as a real option to a big portion of the US sports fan...

The guy who directed the Bastard Bowl also directed Hardhome which was the one bright spot of last season. Whoever that guy is, is just really (frank)ing good at directing big battle episodes. He's apparently directing next week's episode too, so tickle me excited
- Victoro311

This week's episode had too much of a good vibe in it. Everything worked out, etc. I have a feeling next week's episode will bring everybody back to earth. It's the Game of Thrones way. I expect death, and a lot of it, in the season finale.

I can't even remotely pretend to care about basketball. You've ruined my day RW. The one place I thought would be talking hockey today

1. Your point that "Very biased towards Cleveland." is false. Love was also called twice for fouls. Point is, refs miss a lot of stuff. NBA game is very physical. Sometimes you can't catch something and call goes the wrong way. But that's not to say the refs are trying to steer a team in a certain direction. If they did, the series never would have been 3-1 in the first placeThis was way diff than 2001 WCSF
2. You were captain??!! omfg
3. maybe to you
4. You must have thought 80s/90s bad boy basketball was too tough for yourself and Naismith

"I still play real basketball" I doubt it
- DeflatedPucks

2. was hoping someone would chirp this. Yeah like being captain of a big school team 15 yrs ago means squat

This week's episode had too much of a good vibe in it. Everything worked out, etc. I have a feeling next week's episode will bring everybody back to earth. It's the Game of Thrones way. I expect death, and a lot of it, in the season finale.
- cap1681

Gonna be honest I can't stand Khaleasi. Every episode....mother of dragons, breaker of chains bla bla bla bla.....The red head Wildling is my favorite right now. Im still not sure what Little Finger's end game is.

Gonna be honest I can't stand Khaleasi. Every episode....mother of dragons, breaker of chains bla bla bla bla.....The red head Wildling is my favorite right now. Im still not sure what Little Finger's end game is.
- sammy87

I'm hoping that Sansa gives him his own castle, just so he can be "Tormund, of House Giantsbane"

So... lets go back to talking Malkin, Flower, and Maatta for picks

Gonna be honest I can't stand Khaleasi. Every episode....mother of dragons, breaker of chains bla bla bla bla.....The red head Wildling is my favorite right now. Im still not sure what Little Finger's end game is.
- sammy87

Danny is unbearable. I don't understand how she still has fans. "Heck yeah Danny! Great inspirational speech! Can't wait to finally cross the Narrow Sea this time!" Nope, still gotta bungle some poop up in Esteros first!

I think they're dumbing Little Finger down in the show as compared to the books. In the books I get the feeling that he's actively trying to maneuver himself onto the Iron Throne. In the show I get the feeling that his motives is just one big Napoleonic complex thing where he's trying to become worthy of Katlyn Stark and by proxy Sansa. It's a real shame.

I'm hoping that Sansa gives him his own castle, just so he can be "Tormund, of House Giantsbane"
- cap1681

That would be the tits. Poetic justice if he gets Last Hearth. But I'm not convinced the Greatjon is dead.

I can't even remotely pretend to care about basketball. You've ruined my day RW. The one place I thought would be talking hockey today
- YouMeAndDupuis9

If I were Gary Bettman and wanted to promote the game to death, I would follow the baseball model.

- Make the season 120 games
- Add 10 more preaseason games / Add "summer training" of some kind
- Throw in some random games in Japan
- Recruit some random players from Haiti/Dominican Republic

I don't think 2-3 outdoor games cuts it. Every team plays an outdoor game and Chicago gets 6

Gonna be honest I can't stand Khaleasi. Every episode....mother of dragons, breaker of chains bla bla bla bla.....
- sammy87